Scarpa Phantom Ultra?

I got an email pointing out a mistake I made identifying the "Phantom Ultra" as a "prototype Phantom 6000" in Jon Griffith's photo of Steck on le Droites. Thanks for the heads up Will!


Way beyond the sales hype. Jonathan Griffith's photo of Ueli Steck soloing the Ginat on Le Droites early in in what appears to be the super lwt version of the Phantom single, the "Ultra" which is down around 1600g in weight per pair for a 42, where the Guide is 1800g and the 6000 is 2000g in that size.





This boot is not available in North American that I can find but is in Europe and England. The over all weight is getting down to an ounce or so of the slightly more traditional fabric "silver bullet" boot, La Sportiva's Trango Extreme Evo Gortex. With a full boot gaiter though the Ultra offers much more protection in nasty, wet, cold conditions. The Ultra looks by the numbers to be lighter and LESS expensive than the Phantom Guide. That could be any where from 3 to 4 ounces per boot in a size 12us/45. Or another 8oz altogether!
Part of the weight savings is using the thinner and lighter sole/mid sole system also used on the Phantom 6000 and noted in that review earlier. Lacing inside the Ultra looks to be the same system that is used in the Guide. Slightly different material on the Ultra's gaiter for reinforcement and durability with crampons. While making inquiries about these boots, Scarpa NA and several retailers who stock the Ultra in England gave similar replies."Re: The Ultra,Boot is less stiff and less warm than the Guide. Sole is very fragile. Sole is not as durable as the Guide. Only the Guide is available in 1/2 sizes." Me thinks they protest too much. No retailer wants to carry such a specialised alpine climbing boot in a full size run (and 1/2s) which would sell directly against the Phantom Guide even if the Ultra is $50. less expensive. I might even swallow the "less durable" issue with the boot soles as they are a lwt version also used on the Phantom 6000. Not a boot I'd use on a lot of rock but might well be a nice advantage to drop another pound off your feet on alpine ice and mixed routes where you'd be wearing 'pons anyway.
BTW, both the Guides and 6000 boots I got this year came with Gortex and Primaloft tags. Spring of next year () they are suppose to be lined with "Outdry" at Steck's suggestion, replacing the time proven Gortex liner. Not a huge amount of added info but I used the new Mtn Hardware gloves that are again Steck's designs and lined with Outdry all of last winter and was happy with them. I've not seen Goretex in a glove system do as well.

"SCARPA announced they have teamed up with OutDry in order to make my all time favorite technical mountaineering boots even better. OutDry's waterproof breathable technology will appear in SCARPA's Phantom Collection for Spring .





Both SCARPA and OutDry worked with renowned alpinist and speed-climber Ueli Steck on the design of the new Phantom Collection. Steck wanted a technical mountaineering boot with improved waterproofness that would cut down on the boot's "wet weight" while climbing in wet snow conditions.

OutDry is currently used in gloves from Mountain Hardwear and footwear from Lafuma among others. OutDry uses a three-dimensional laminating technology to adhere a windproof and waterproof breathable membrane to the inside of the outer most layer of shoes, boots and gloves. The permanent membrane bond creates a flawless fit with no folds, seams or the requirement for seam-sealing tape.

The waterproof breathable membrane will be laminated directly to the inner side of the K-tech boot upper on the SCARPA Phantom technical mountaineering boots. The use of OutDry in the boots also allows the addition of Primaloft for increased insulation qualities.

OutDry will be featured in all the new SCARPA Phantom styles including the Phantom 6000, Phantom Guide and the Phantom Ultra."

By the numbers:
upper S- TECH
lining : WATERPROOF - OD /
MESH
insole : FIBER - PRO XT
sun : PENTAX SPEED
Last : AG
sizes: 37-48 ( WITH 1 / 2)
weight : 800 GR (42 - 1 / 2 PAIR )
Read more and make your own comparisons:

http://it.scarpa.net/prodotti/high-altitude/phantom-ultra/


http://www.thegearcaster.com/the_gearcaster//08/scarpa-teams-with-outdry-for-phantom-collection.html#ixzz10iCmi1aH



Will's photos:

Signs Found on Our Walk

Egleton Nature Reserve

With Maureen and Gordon - we explored the hides around the lagoons, and then walked up to and round Lax Hill - in all getting on for 6 miles. Weather better than we expected - warm and a bit muggy, but some sun and no rain, other than a few spots. Some damp patches underfoot, though the main walks were fine.



We saw plenty of gulls, various kinds of duck, coot, swans, terns, great crested grebe (one on a nest) and a little egret. We didn't visit the Lyndon reserve where you can watch the ospreys.



Map of the reserve



Information about Rutland Nature Reserve



We had to get permits from the Visitor Centre at Egleton- £4.30 each for us seniors, for a day's permit. The only way to see this part of the land round Rutland Water.

View from the Robin Hide

View from the Lapwing Hide across to the Hambleton peninsula

Cold Weather Victories

When I saw this poster it made me laugh, reminding me of a street scene from the previous day: A woman bundled up in a shearling coat and hat waited for a taxi, while a cyclist in a long sleeve jersey and tights waited at a red light. The woman looked cold and uncomfortable. The cyclist looked ruddy and relaxed, checking his phone for messages with one unclipped toe on the ground.



In the short time window before the cyclist's light turned green and the woman's taxi arrived, somehow the two ended up in a conversation. As I walked past, I caught bits of their exchange. "But how can you... in the cold?," and so forth. By the time the cyclist replied, I was out of earshot. But whatever it was he said to her, they both laughed that special laugh that rings with anticipation. And when I looked back over my shoulder discreetly (I hope), sure enough the woman had her phone out and it looked like they were exchanging numbers. His light had turned green. Her taxi was waiting. They were on the side of the road smiling. "Stay warm!" I thought I heard him yell when he finally took off on his bike. More laughter.



Briskly walking down the street as I fiddled with my scarf, I experienced a moment of longing for my roadbike, and for my technical layers of cycling clothes! It's just so much nicer to be on the bike in cold weather, I caught myself thinking...

Sweetest Little Pea

Beaker is our parakeet (budgie). I don't have a lot of pictures of him, because he's usually pretty camera-shy. This past weekend he was in a mood for it, though.



Pretty bird!

Descriptive, but also one of his favorite things to say.



Man oh man, does Beaker love him some bananas.

He's very happy about the banana. Budgies' pupils shrink when they're excited. (Compare with the eyes in the first picture.)



The skin is actually his favorite part.

I am so totally nuts about this bird!

It takes a little while to teach budgies to speak, but it's definitely worth it. Beaker does a few tricks too. "Gimme a kiss" gets you nose kisses, and he'll fly to you when you say, "C'mere". If he feels like it.

I've been bad about not teaching him new things to say lately. But he picked one up anyway. He's got a little Ferris wheel with bells that he loves to throw to the floor. We got in the habit of saying, "Excuse me!" when he does that... and now he says it too!

Notes on parakeets/budgies:
If you ever buy a parakeet, I can't recommend this enough: find one that will sit on your finger in the store. I probably traumatized our first budgie by trying so hard to make friends with an unfriendly bird. There are all sorts of taming techniques, but none worked on poor Mr. Jitters.

When budgies are first delivered to the store, they are usually fairly tame. But it only takes a day or two for them to learn (from the other birds) to flee from the hand. So plan in advance and ask your pet store to call you when the birds first arrive.

The Skinny ropes?

I would prefer to use one of the modern lwt single ropes given the choice in most situations. Lots of them available these days. No surprise I am a big fan of the Beal Joker pictured above and own two of them.



But on any route I need to rappel off of I would prefer a twin or maybe a double rope. But generally a twin. I find the twin format easy enough to use on most ice routes I am doing and "safe enough". A double rope will generally add to the safety factor while adding some weight. Many of the better modern ropes will allow you to use them as a twin and a double and in some cases a twin, double and single.



But you need to play close attention to the following on all these ropes.

Falls/ Impact Force/Elongation/Extension



The down side of the skinny twin ropes now available (or at least the pair I have been using for a while now) is they are really skinny and themore common belay plates can be problematic. Too fast on steep rappels for my taste and too stretchy sometimes if loaded as a single rope.



My current twin rope system is a pair of Beal Ice Twins @ 7.7mm and 37g per meter. There are other great ropes and I have used most of them. I just happen to be on Beal at the moment. My first and more than half of them bought at retail fwiw.












I saw a few new ropes at OR this summer. Some of them held great interest for me. Enough interest that I may change a good part of my ice climbing system for some (but not all) projects.














TheEdelrid Flycatcher was one @ 6.9mm and 35g per meter. And no question the skinny winner! I comes with a specifically designed belay device...which it needs IMO. All of the ropes mentioned here need extra care on the belays and rappels. More on this rope system specifically coming up shortly.



More here on my take on ropes:

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//03/ropes.html













Beal also has the new 7.3mm Gully @ 36gram per meter. Twin and Dbl ratings. Late Jan, 2014 delivery. 36gram per and 7.3mm? Interesting trade off on the already thin and light weight Ice Twin at 38gram per meter and 7.8mm. Another rope I will be using as a comparison to my Ice Twin when I get the chance.









Petzl has a new 7.7mm twin. Sorry unsure what the weight was on the Petzl. I would suspect it is close to the Beals offerings. Mammut has at least onetwin @ 42grams per meter.











" Monster Ropes by Metolius are
7.8mm and 38g/m and a double or twin. They are a contender."



Thanks Brian!



I should have more infoon all these ropes shortly.









Trangowith a 8.1 that is both a twin and a double @ 42gramsper meter. Theyarea very clean set of ropes and available now.



No doubt I missed a few of the new "skinny ropes". But things keeping getting lighter and more fragile...truly "race parts" in gear these days.



Problem is..high performance "race parts" fail in a spectacular fashion. And cost a lot in $ to maintain. Ask anyone who races cars.The twins in particular are not "beginners" ropes IMO.With the current technology I thinkwe are pushing the envelope on ropes. Sometimes, in some places/circumstances bigger and heavier might just be better and much safer. I know it is always cheaper.



I like soloing on ice. Take a look at these ropes yourself. Decide for yourself just how close you are to soloing.



But you really need to check the ratings (Falls/ Impact Force/Elongation/Extension)on all these ropes to see if they are appropriate for your own use. YMMV

Jemez Red Rocks

Happiness

And so remember this,
life is no abyss,
Somewhere there's a bluebird
of happiness.

-----

Eastern Bluebird (of my happiness), Sialia sialis.
Song lyrics by Edward Heyman and Harry Parr Davies.

Skipping School

As soon as the weather turns nice, John Payne, one of my local heroes and the prefect of discipline at the Duke Ellington School, is on the move. He does't just sit in his office- he goes out and tracks down his prey whether the errant students are in Georgetown or enjoying a park just down the street. A lot of people in my family have attended DC public schools including my parents, and during my son's tenure at Ellington,I noticed another theme running through our family: truancy.







First there's my mother and father- they met at Western High (now Duke Ellington) in the 1930s. My mother remembers skipping school to have picnics with my father. He had a a Model A Ford for a quick escape, and more importantly, two sandwiches in his bag because my Greek grandmother was sure he would starve while away at school all day.











For my oldest brother, Peter, skipping school in the 1950s meant he and his buddy Pete Stone would head for the movie theaters like the RKO, the Capitol and the Palace. Back then going to the movies also included not only a newsreel and a cartoon, but often a stage show, and my brother swears he once saw Peggy Lee.Unfortunately for my brother, our father's spies were everywhere, and he was caught more often than not, but despite the consequences, it was worth it to him.












My sister also remembers skipping school with Pete Stone, Wilson's expert truant at the time. This is what she remembers:



"Back in the day, skipping school was easy if you knew the right people. Pete was a senior, and I was a lowly freshman.He plotted with me one evening to go to Fletcher's Boat House, and the next day, hehandled the attendance records by commandeering the girl in charge. She erased my name and his from the absentee list. We then drove to the boat house, rented a canoe, and down the Potomac we went at lightning speed.




That should have been our first clue that things would end badly.



We spent the rest of the day trying to paddle back against the current. Finally, somewhere around the Tidal Basin, we were able to get the canoe out of the water. We carried the friggin' thing all the way back to Fletcher's. Returning home much later than usual andin agony with the aches of hauling a canoe over my head and a fresh sunburn, I now had to explain to the parents where I had been. I wasastonished whenthey accepted my tall tale about too much sun during the field hockey game, but I never risked skipping school again."

















Finally in more recent years, the very first time my daughter, Zoe skipped school at Wilson, she became a victim of Homeland Security. She and a friend had snuck out out, just for a quick run down the block to get a soda, but during her very brief absence the entire city went into lock down mode. (Remember the Bush Administration?) Getting out was easy, but to Zoe's horror, when she returned the doors were locked, and she couldn't get back in. That's when the truancy officers picked her up, took her downtown and made her call her parents. This cured her until senioritis set in, but I am happy to report that all of the truants in this story recieved their diplomas.

Great day in the woods

After shooting this morning's sunrise on Lake Superior I spent most of the remainder of the day exploring a remote section of Hollow Rock Creek. Hollow Rock Creek has a couple of really cool waterfall areas that are difficult to get to... no trails lead to these areas, so you have to bush-whack your way in and believe me, the going is pretty rough!



Once you get to the waterfall areas, however, the effort is well worth it. The beauty of Hollow Rock Creek is not an "in your face" kind of beauty... its beauty on a smaller scale. You have to look closely to see it, but once you start to look you soon find yourself seeing things you would have otherwise missed. The weather was perfect for this day of exploration along Hollow Rock Creek: overcast skies with very thick cloud cover. The cloud cover makes for a very even, muted sort of light that is conducive to shooting under the forest canopy. Bright sunny days are less desirable when shooting in the deep woods as the rays of sunlight create areas of extreme contrast that are almost impossible to expose correctly in a photographic image.



(Above: "Trapped" - A leaf that was stuck on the bottom of the creek)

Also, once most of the leaves have fallen off the trees, that doesn't mean that you should put your camera away and stop venturing out into the woods. It simply means that you should try looking other places to find your images... namely, along the ground! Its one of life's great pleasures to wander along a little creek like Hollow Rock and look for all these neat little things that catch your eye.



(Above and below: Swirling leaves and foam)





(Below left: Pothole along Hollow Rock Creek)

Spring on the Beaver River

I took a drive to Duluth today and along the way saw a lot of incredible fog-filled views which were a result of overnight and morning rainfall. The best view by far was this one of the Beaver River. As we drove across the Highway 61 bridge that spans the river I made a quick glance upstream and my jaw dropped when I saw all the fog over the river. After we crossed the bridge I couldn't resist pulling over and parking the truck so I could walk back out on the bridge and make a few photos of this beautiful scene.

Mount St Helens :: 30 Years Later

At 8:32 am on May 18th, 1980 a magnitude 5.1 earthquake “shook the ground beneath Mount St. Helens in Washington state, setting off one of the largest landslides in recorded history - the entire north slope of the volcano slid away. As the land moved, it exposed the superheated core of the volcano setting off gigantic explosions and eruptions of steam, ash and rock debris. The blast was heard hundreds of miles away, the pressure wave flattened entire forests, the heat melted glaciers and set off destructive mudflows, and 57 people lost their lives. The erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet into the atmosphere for over 10 hours, depositing ash across Eastern Washington and 10 other states.” - - from The Big Picture which has a fantastic collection of photos of the volcano and its 1980 eruption.

The western side of Mount Saint Helens as seen from the Visitor Center at Silver Lake, 46 road-miles away.

From a viewpoint on the north-northwest side.
Clouds covered the upper half of the volcano for the entire afternoon with an occasional break, which briefly revealed the peaks. This, and the remaining photos were taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Named for David A. Johnston, a volcanologist on duty nearby on that fateful day. His last words were “Vancouver, this is it!”

The lateral blast exploded to the north toward what is now Johnston Ridge and, quite literally, destroyed everything in its path.

The mountains and valleys were tall old-growth forest. Now all that remains are a few denuded logs lying about like pick-up-sticks.

A park service sign nearby tells a tale of the blast as “spoken” by this stump: “Step up and look at me carefully. Notice my shattered trunk, my missing top. I once stood 150 feet tall, surrounded by a beautiful forest of green and growing trees. When the blast exploded sideways out of the mountain, it plowed through the debris avalanche and swept across the landscape, picking up and carrying large chunks of rock, ice, and splintered wood.”

“Within a minute, I was struck and scoured by the stone-filled wind. My bark and branches were stripped and scattered toward the edge of the blast zone, 17 miles away. As trees that had stood for hundreds of years crashed around me, my upper trunk strained, then shattered in the nearly 700 mph winds. Only a small part of me remains as evidence of the blast's power.”

Down in the valley, the blast dumped 680 feet of debris, filling Spirit Lake to the east with logs and ash.

Johnston Ridge was completely denuded. Spirit Lake lies beneath the far ridge at left-center and St. Helens rises up from the valley on the right.

The early evening light emphasizes the ridges and the gulleys now being carved out by the flow of water.

Another view of cloud shrouded St. Helens from Johnston Ridge in the early evening. All photos were taken on Sunday, September 12th.

The Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is 5 ½ miles from the crater, has some really nice exhibits as well as a 16-minute movie about St. Helens. If you've never been there, it is well worth the 60-mile drive off of Interstate 5 on State Road 504.

A couple of the many websites about Mount St. Helens:

• The many faces of Mt. St. Helens
• Mount St. Helens Visitor Guide
• Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument